Possible Involvement of Tight Junctions, Extracellular Matrix and Nuclear Receptors in Epithelial Differentiation
Figure 1
Functions of tight junctions and molecular components. (a) Functions of tight junctions. Barrier function: tight junctions limit the penetration of intercellular material and impose selective permeability. Fence function: tight junctions restrict the diffusion of proteins and lipids in a cell membrane. (b) Schematic drawing of bicellular junction proteins. Transmembrane and scaffold proteins of tight junctions and polarity proteins are presented. These drawings are modified from a previously published review [4].
